Breaking Bad: The Murder Twins, part 4
Nov. 2nd, 2024 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerThe Murder Twins, as I call them, are an enigmatic pair of recurring minor characters in season 3 of Breaking Bad. A cold open scene in S3E7 unravels the enigma just a bit. It's a flashback to ~20 years ago.
The twins, Marco and Leonel, are kids playing in a spacious back yard with trees and a swing set while their uncle, Hector Salamanca, watches. The boys get in a fight over an action figure. Marco pops the head off the toy. Leonel runs in tears to his uncle, crying that he wishes Marco dead.
Hector calmly explains that he will help resolve this dispute. He asks Marco to fetch him a cold beer from the ice bucket at his side, then....
Hector cruelly forces Marco's head under water and holds it there, drowning him. Leonel is shocked. Hector asks, "Is this not what you wanted?" Hector holds the boy's head underwater until Marco starts hitting him to force him to release.
"Family is everything," Hector intones gravely.
As character backstory, this one makes sense for explaining the lives of violence and casual cruelty the Murder Twins live.
As morality lessons go, it falls flat. "Family is everything" is supposed to explain why the Murder Twins are so committed to revenge against Walt for betraying their uncle. But if family is so important why would your uncle offer kill your brother for some tiny transgression? Why would he even pretend? All I can figure it's part of a lesson: you can kill others whenever they wrong you (the part that's not shown here) but never fight with your family. Or they'll kill you, too.
The twins, Marco and Leonel, are kids playing in a spacious back yard with trees and a swing set while their uncle, Hector Salamanca, watches. The boys get in a fight over an action figure. Marco pops the head off the toy. Leonel runs in tears to his uncle, crying that he wishes Marco dead.
Hector calmly explains that he will help resolve this dispute. He asks Marco to fetch him a cold beer from the ice bucket at his side, then....
Hector cruelly forces Marco's head under water and holds it there, drowning him. Leonel is shocked. Hector asks, "Is this not what you wanted?" Hector holds the boy's head underwater until Marco starts hitting him to force him to release.
"Family is everything," Hector intones gravely.
As character backstory, this one makes sense for explaining the lives of violence and casual cruelty the Murder Twins live.
As morality lessons go, it falls flat. "Family is everything" is supposed to explain why the Murder Twins are so committed to revenge against Walt for betraying their uncle. But if family is so important why would your uncle offer kill your brother for some tiny transgression? Why would he even pretend? All I can figure it's part of a lesson: you can kill others whenever they wrong you (the part that's not shown here) but never fight with your family. Or they'll kill you, too.
